Another US hostage 'beheaded'

03 September 2014 - 02:06 By Reuters
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SAVAGE: Man said to be Sotloff 'about to be beheaded'
SAVAGE: Man said to be Sotloff 'about to be beheaded'
Image: REUTERS

The Islamic State released a video yesterday purporting to show the beheading of American hostage Steven Sotloff, raising the stakes in its confrontation with Washington over US air strikes on its insurgents in Iraq.

In the video a masked figure also issues a threat against a British hostage, a man the group names as David Haines, and warns governments to back off "this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State".

The purported executioner appears to be the same British-accented man who appeared in an August 19 video showing the killing of US journalist James Foley. It shows a similar desert setting.

"I'm back, Obama, and I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State, because of your insistence on continuing your bombings and ... on Mosul Dam, despite our serious warnings," the man says.

"So just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people."

In the video, Sotloff describes himself as "paying the price" for the US intervention in Iraq with his life. A freelance journalist, Sotloff was kidnapped in Syria in August last year. His mother, Shirley, last month appealed in a videotaped message to Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, for her son's release.

In the video it released last month, Islamic State said Foley's death was in retaliation for US air strikes in northern Iraq.

The White House said: "We have seen a video that purports to be the murder of US citizen Steven Sotloff by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The intelligence community is working as quickly as possible to determine its authenticity.

"If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends. We will provide more information when it is available."

Iraq's outgoing foreign minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, condemned what he called "this savage killing ... an example of savagery and evil," and said this was evidence of the need for Iraq and the West to defeat the Islamic State.

"We have a common enemy and the whole world is moving in the right direction to stop this savagery and brutality," he said.

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